Then, I would be interested in teh source for the claim that SFO will definitely start in Apr 2005. The time this was discussed, it was rumour, and I would be surprised if the final decision has been taken

Air India has floated global tenders to take 3 Airbus 343's and one Boeing 747-400 on lease for it's U.S. West Coast expansion.

Are you referring to the tenders that were approved by the board 3 months ago and floated in May? If so, this has been discussed many times over already.

I have also stated many times over that SFO cannot happen until a new bilateral deal between India and the US is negotiated, either to replace or modify the current 1950s deal that permits service to EITHER Los Angeles OR San Francisco. The last round of talks in May were psuedo-productive in that both sides agreed for the need to open it up some more, but neither side made any concrete proposals to do so. With the change of government that immediately followed, everything was put onto the back burner again.

Any truth to the following article Sean concerning open skies between US and India???

Absolutely. Although the article itself is very badly researched and contains a number of factual errors, the overall premise is correct. The Indian government has been pushing for a more liberal US-India deal since the early 1990s (when AI's application for Chicago service was repeatedly blocked) and it has been the US who has resisted it until recently.

Whats the sticking point in the US-India bilaterals? Northwest's demands for more flights?

Northwest doesn't have any restrictions on the number of flights they can operate to India. The restriction is on KLM because of the India-NL bilateral, which also prevents KLM from codesharing on NW operated flights. The US DOT has maintained that this is not a matter they have jurisdiction over, despite NW's protestations. It is an issue between India-NL and hence all US rulings are made over NW's objections. An open skies deal would not change this at all.

There really is no sticking point at present. There were plenty in the early 1990s over AI's proposed services to Chicago that were consistently objected to and finally approved only with the caveat that services via London be capped at 3x weekly (which is why we see 3x LHR and 3x FRA operations right now) - and then later over AI's codesharing to the US West Coast, but those were sorted out in the late 1990s. Right now both sides would be willing to sign a new open skies bilateral - they just need to sit down and negotiate the details.

When were US - India bilaterals first drawn up?
It appears that these were crafted during the old babu socialist days when the current explosion in US-India traffic was beyond anyone's contemplation.
How do you envision the US-India bilaterals changing?